Sometime in the middle of next month, Microsoft plans to issue a firmware update designed to fix a glitch that is causing some owners of its Zune music player to experience skipping when playing songs purchased from Microsoft's online store. Zune marketing director Jason Reindorp said the downloadable update will not offer any major feature updates to the player but it will "improve overall software reliability and efficiency".

Reindorp said the Zune, which debuted in November, held its number two spot in hard drive-based digital music players in January, citing NPD numbers that give Microsoft 9.9% of the market. Reindorp added: "We believe this toehold in the market will enable us to make a deeper footprint as time goes on and we're committed to expanding the Zune offering." He declined to say when the company might add more devices or start selling video content, adding that Redmond is focused on making the music experience on the current device the best it can be.